Melissa Gay (born July 18, 1968 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an artist from Nashville, Tennessee.
She has a bachelor's degree in studio art from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.
From website:
Melissa Gay is a critically-acclaimed artist of speculative fiction book covers, roleplaying games, botany manuals, and even a tarot deck. Her character redesigns have been featured on io9 and tor.com, and her original paintings are in the hands of private collectors around the world. Whether depicting criminal masterminds, comic book heroes, deep space, eldritch horror, child mermaids or sentient bugs, she strives to inject diversity and a touch of dreamlike wonder into all her work.